From the Rahhala : Arab travelers & friends of Arab countries community on Couchsurfing: Insect Dishes

Sonja K.

@SONJA.KOEHLERKaufbeuren, Bavaria, Germany

Insect Dishes

Hey guys,

I'm a german student and I do a project about eating insects. It's healthy (protein) and good for our nature to eat insects. But in Europe it's weird to eat them.

My question is: Is it common to eat insect dishes in any Arab countries? Or is it rather weird to eat and cook them?

Does the Koran plays a big role? What about locusts?

Would you try meals like noodles or crackers, with insect meal in it?

I hope you can help me, thank you!

Best greetings, Sonja

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Setti M.

@settiEspoo, Uusimaa, Finland

Hey Sonja,

I wish you good luck with your study project. To answer your questions, it is not common to eat insect dishes in Arab countries. I have only heard of some people eating locusts, and this is rare too in my opinion. In Islam, the principle whether something is allowed to be eaten or not is that if there is no mention in Koran or in Sunna (what the prophet Mohamed said or did) that it is forbidden to eat it, then you are allowed to eat it. In Sunna, there's no proof, in my knowledge, that the prophet Mohamed allowed or disallowed eating insects. In Koran, there is no mention of that as well, but there is this verse 7:157: (roughly translated) "... he allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure) ... " . Many Islamic scholars agreed that it is to be understood from this verse that what is disgusting for the human nature is forbidden to eat. (bad and impure is merely a rough translation of the word "al khaba'eth" which means disgusting and impure more than just bad.

To summarize, we have 4 schools of understanding of religious laws in (Sunni) Islam, 3 of them understood that it is forbidden to eat insects. The one that sees that it is allowed to eat insects is the Maliki school (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maliki), it is more followed in the region of Maghreb.

I will be happy to help you more, Don't hesitate to ask

All the best, Mounir

Sonja K.

@SONJA.KOEHLERKaufbeuren, Bavaria, Germany

Hi Mounir,

Thank you for your detailed explanation :)

I think, in addition to the Koran's rules, the cultural aspect plays a big role? (Like you said, it's not definitely described that especially insects are impure, so it can be also the subjective opinion of the people, who find them disgusting. Like here in Germany, too.) In asian or african parts of the world, insects are more accepted, and not only the poor people eat it. In my project, it's my aim to establish insect in european daily food, because it saves water, needs much less space and CO2 then e.g. cattle. So it could be an important part of saving the future, overpopulated world. To start right now, it would be even better ;) Of course in my case, it's just a simulation in my studies course. And I think it would be even more difficult in an arab country to realize the project - could you even imagine it? ;)

Setti M.

@settiEspoo, Uusimaa, Finland

I think that if you prove scientifically that it is healthy to eat insects, with a good promotion you can manipulate the occident to adopt this regime. In Islam as well, the forbidden food is so because it is somehow harmful for health, so if you prove that it is not, it might work :)